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Monday, November 4, 2013

I've long been fascinated with Linda Vista Community Hospital, which stands vacant in East LA's Boyle Heights neighborhood. It's not abandoned, per se, but it's been closed as a hospital for over 20 years, and only used as a film location since.

The Linda Vista Hospital was the latest venue to be selected by the Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, a troupe known for its site-specific productions in unusual places, often historically and architecturally significant buildings - and, sometimes, on them.

Their contemporary dance performance would give attendees their last opportunity to see the place before it undergoes a major renovation to turn it into affordable senior housing [Ed 11/4/13 10:50 p.m. PT: to be called "Hollenbeck Terrace," a nod to the park across the street, named after former LA councilman John Edward Hollenbeck, a capitalist and early settler of the Boyle Heights area, east of the LA River].

Wanting the chance to see as much of the rest of the hospital as I could during daylight, we went to the performance early for a special pre-show cocktail party...

...on the roof, a vantage point from which you can really appreciate the sprawl of this huge medical complex, whose perimeter I'd walked once, but whose smokestack and Spanish tile roofs I'd missed.

There's an exterior staircase that leads to the rooftop deck (an extension of the sixth floor), but there are also interior stairwells that lead farther down...